As soon as Format Boy answers the phone, I recognize his booming voice. I’ve spent weeks immersed in the influencer’s back catalog of videos and voice notes. Format Boy isn’t like other influencers: He doesn’t show his face, and he won’t tell me his real name. He isn’t posting motivational content or seeking lucrative brand…
Michael Calore: This is genius. Katie Drummond: Thank you. Lauren Goode: This is the reality TV of the future. Katie Drummond: It’s incredible. Lauren Goode: It has arrived. Katie Drummond: And you know what? And I just did their job for them, because it’s marketing for their company. They got me. Michael Calore: All right,…
On Friday, Epic Games announced Darth Vader would be returning to Fortnite as an in-game boss—but this time, players would be able to chat with him through conversational AI. “Ask him all your pressing questions about the Force, the Galactic Empire … or you know, a good strat for the last Storm circle,” Epic said…
Donald Trump’s jaunt to the Middle East featured an entourage of billionaire tech bros, a fighter-jet escort, and business deals designed to reshape the global landscape of artificial intelligence. On the final stop of the tour in Abu Dhabi, the US president announced that unnamed US companies would partner with the United Arab Emirates to…
After telehealth startups recently lost the ability to sell exact copies of patented GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, some firms have begun turning to a different, less effective medication that has been on the market in the United States since 2010. Often considered a precursor to blockbuster products like Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, liraglutide…
Through the Bing APIs, Microsoft helped other search engines save on the cost and time of crawling billions of web pages and developing a searchable index of all available content. The tools allowed them to automatically submit queries and get back results that they could present to their own users for what had been an…
Chesky explains that historically, people used Airbnb only once or twice a year, so its design had to be exceptionally simple. Now the company is retooling for more frequent access. Open the app, and you see a trio of icons that act as gateways to the expanded functions. Within minutes Chesky and his lieutenants are…
With the rise of mercenary spyware and other targeted threats, tech giants like Apple, Google, and Microsoft have spent the last few years trying to figure out how to protect the digital lives of their most at-risk, vulnerable users around the world. On mobile, the launch of Apple’s iOS Lockdown Mode in 2022 was one…
Ten days from now, 220 crypto investors will sit down to a lavish three-course dinner and enjoy “stunning views of the Potomac river” with US president Donald Trump at his 600-acre golf club in Washington, DC. To earn an invitation, all they had to do was buy a boatload of the president’s personal crypto coin….
As AI-driven fraud becomes increasingly common, more people feel the need to verify every interaction they have online.